66 ANIMALS AND INSECTS 



As soon as the young nurses get old enough, that 

 is, when their skin is hardened into shiny armor, 

 they must go outside the hill for provisions, and 

 must help build new roads and tunnels and chambers, 

 and keep the old ones in repair. They are as busy 

 as busy can be all day long, and never stop to rest; 

 only, those who have watched ants very carefully 

 say that sometimes they really seem to play. They 

 run about and jump upon each other's backs, or 

 stand upon their hind legs to wrestle, stroking each 

 other meanwhile in a friendly manner with their 

 antennae. 



The ants which go outside of the hill or city to 

 forage, sometimes go long distances, but they always 

 know how to find their way home again, and they 

 take back to it whatever they find, — a dead fly or 

 a caterpillar, a crumb or a piece of bread. If one 

 ant cannot carry the load alone she goes and gets 

 her friends to help and together they pull and push 

 and tug the morsel to their home. They never stop 

 to eat by themselves any of the food that has been 

 found; every particle is always carried back to the 

 city to be used as food for all. 



Besides the food which they store away, they are 

 very fond of the honey-dew which they obtain by 

 milking very tiny green flies called aphids. These 

 aphids live on shrubs and bushes and on trees, and the 

 ants go a long way to find them and to milk them. 



You may have seen these tiny green flies upon 

 your rose bushes or grapevines, and noticed ants 

 crawling up and down the stalks. They are after 

 the honey-dew of which they are so fond. By 



